Written By: Nate Vickery
The uprise of the internet has created a unique platform for businesses, bringing about a particular efficiency in communication between the company and end user, and enhancing the potential of reaching bigger audiences (faster) than companies normally would through the regular means of advertisement. Social media engagement and interaction have made it possible for the customer and company to form much stronger relationships, interact and engage in a way that simply wasn’t possible before. Judging by the statistics, “74% of consumers say that social media influences their purchasing decisions, making sites like Facebook an invaluable tool for businesses”.
If you position your social media strategy right, your whole business may blossom through an increase in the company’s visibility, further increase in brand awareness, and, following, your conversion rates. However, often too eager to meet their end goal too soon, some companies tend to abuse their internet presence on social media, achieving a completely opposite effect to the one they were after; they alienate (potential) customers. Mediocre posts, poor social media management and ill-timed tweets end up ruining the company’s reputation – and, in the world of the internet – if your business dies on social media, it’ll die in reality, too.
To avoid leading your business to ruin, there are certain things that you simply shouldn’t do on media sites; we’re listing the most annoying ones.
Overshare
Sharing your opinion on current events is fine, as long as they’re moderate and to the point. Oversharing is annoying; your followers want to see something else on that newsfeed aside your posts.
The posts you link to your business should be about current events and related to your business, but they should never become offending or “too much”. If you have the need to comment on all the current events around you, do it on your personal page. Unless your posts read relevant or useful to your readers, don’t post them.
Get into arguments
People complain, it’s in their nature; they were doing it before the internet, they’re doing it now. No matter which job you are running, there’ll always be customers who are not satisfied with your product. What is worse, they don’t even need to be your direct customers – they can be either competition trolls or people looking to vent their frustration somewhere. Some of them may even try to activate a Facebook ban on you, but you have to stay on top of the situation.
As a serious business, you need to stay calm and collected whenever you receive a negative comment; your job is to make your service/product as good as possible and not get into arguments proving your product is good. Let the product speak for itself.
Ignoring requests
If you get a customer ask about anything relating to your business, whether it’s through direct messaging or comments, try to respond as quickly as you can. We absolutely understand the frustration of finding time to manage it all, but you have to – unless you respond to your customers’ questions, you’re giving off a very disrespectful vibe, indirectly showing them you don’t care (about them).
Hashtag overload
Hashtags are very helpful for categorizing content to reach a specific audience, curating information and providing context. However, too much hashtagging is immature and unprofessional. Sure, you will be tempted to include as many hashtags as possible in order to get a broader viewing of your post but try not to. It will not only look desperate, but it will be very annoying to your customers.
Two to four hashtags are an acceptable amount, depending on the medium.
Being inconsistent
Posting sporadically is showing inconsistency in your business goal and development. Whoever goes to visit your Facebook page and sees you haven’t been active in a while, they’ll be prone to think you may have shut down the business or that you’re not legitimate.
Consistency is important for both the frequency of your posts as well as the tone and personality you want your business to ooze. Before even starting your social media journey, make a posting strategy that you will be honoring. That way, you’ll be showing your clientele you are serious about what you do.
Nate Vickery is a business consultant and a blogger. He is mostly engaged in tailoring internet marketing strategies for SMBs and startups. Nate is also an editor on Bizzmarkblog.com.
